Lesley Students in Italy

With its rich history and cultural offerings, it's not surprising that Italy is the second most popular study abroad destination (after the United Kingdom) for students from the United States. Forty Lesley students have studied in Florence and Rome since 2010. Here are some recent reports from the field.

Studio Art in Florence

Lesley's long-time educational partner, the Lorenzo de'Medici Italian International Institute offers courses in arts and sciences, Italian language and culture, design and creative arts. The photo to the left features a painting studio at LDM. Just
across the river from the LDM campus, on the opposite side of the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge),
Lesley students Chandler Lupo and
Emma True spent the spring 2014 semester at AIFS's program at Richmond International University.
When not taking classes on women in Italian society, painting, and Italian, they frequented their favorite gelato shop (see their photo above right). Chandler is a Communications major and Emma is studying Early Childhood Education.

Family Roots in Rome

Animation and Marketing major Kara Mongell spent the spring 2014 semester at John Cabot University (JCU). JCU is in Rome, the country's capital city as well as home to some of the world's most spectacular ancient ruins. Kara was admitted to JCU through Academic Programs International (API), another of Lesley's study abroad partners. In addition to providing a warm welcome to student life in Rome, API helped Kara locate the cemetery where some of her ancestors are buried. Kara traveled there by bus and posed for this photo in front of her great-grandfather's tombstone. While in Italy, Kara blogged for API. Below are some highlights from her post on thriving as a deaf person in a non-English speaking country.

Any disability shouldn’t hold you back from studying
abroad. It’s definitely an opportunity that will change you for the
better. It’s a chance to test the limits of your disability and find new
experiences you wouldn’t find back home. One of my favorite quotes by
Henry Miller resonated with me and I’d like to share it with you: “One’s
destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things”. At the
end of my travels, I found that these things you’ll see with new eyes
are yourself, and the people you meet, and the cultures you’ll
experience.

- Kara Mongell, College of Art and Design 2015

On an excursion to the small town of Ascoli Piceno Kara managed to locate her great-grandfather's grave. "No one in Ascoli Piceno spoke English, so my friend who spoke Italian better than I did really helped out. At one point, we were walking along a bridge and started talking to a family of five who were on the sidewalk. In the middle of our conversation, I asked the father to slow down speaking because I was deaf. He suddenly got extremely excited and pointed at his oldest son, saying he was deaf too! The older son used sign language, and so could I, so we tried to sign to each other. I found differences in Italian and English sign language – it was so different that it was hard to communicate. But nevertheless we were both very excited about this meeting. It was really cool meeting a deaf local!"

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Laura Slor, a business and global studies major at Lesley University, spent her sophomore year studying in Rome, Italy. Read More.

GLOBAL GUIDE PROGRAM PROMOTES CULTURAL EXCHANGE

The Global Guides program matches volunteers with international students to help them get acclimated to
student life at Lesley and to take advantage of Boston's cultural,
recreational, and educational offerings.Contact us to sign up for the program!

LESLEY COMMITS TO DOUBLING PARTICIPATION IN STUDY ABROAD

Launched by the Institute of International Education in March 2014, Generation Study Abroad is a five-year initiative to double the number of students studying abroad by the end of the decade.